Particles that can be accelerated to penetrate the skin can have a very low active payload when a relatively light functional material, such as a drug, ink, cosmetics, etc., needs to be coated on dense, carrier particles such as gold. Solid particles of the functional material most efficiently carry the functional material in higher doses. However, the relatively light particle of functional material may not have enough momentum to be delivered into biological tissue at sufficient depth to reach target cells. Advanced gene therapies, such as DNA/RNA based vaccines, gene based cancer tumor therapies, and genetic pharmacology need new delivery methods to penetrate cells.